Review by Ron Fassler . . .
Comedian Jeff Ross is often referred to as “The Roastmaster General” for his X-rated celebrity roasts which have been a fixture on cable TV for thirty years. Squeezing every ounce of humor out of the most brutal put-down is a badge of honor he proudly wears, as evidence by his website which goes by the name Roastmastergeneral. For the moment though, he’s mostly put aside his brand of insult comedy to star in a revealing one-man play of his own devising, Take a Banana for the Ride. Opening tonight at the Nederlander Theatre, Ross is attempting to take his place beside other comedians who’ve gone a similar Broadway route. It’s not easy charging major prices for something audiences are used to paying less for in a comedy club or watching cozily on their sofa as a Netflix or HBO special. So, Ross has his work cut out for him. What he has smartly done is build a show around his personal story, taking a page from Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays, a Broadway hit in 2004 and revived briefly in 2013. With the amount of anguish and trauma in Ross’s life, he could easily turn maudlin, but that’s not the way the guy is wired.
In a recent interview, Ross tells of his Aunt Bess taking him as a teenager in the late 80s to see Jackie Mason’s one-man show, The World According to Me, and being blown away by it. “I thought it was so cool,”Ross said. “He didn’t have dancers, he didn’t have music, it was just him ripping the roof off the theater for an hour-and-a-half. I was like wow, that is the pinnacle of show business. If I can do that then I’m good.”
Despite his show covering personal subjects such as his own birth defects, alopecia, a bout with colon cancer, the premature deaths of his parents, and his long, tough road to success, he’s still out to entertain. He even wrings laughs out of the untimely passings of three of his closest friends over an eight-month period: the comedians Bob Saget, Gilbert Gottfried, and Norm MacDonald. But don’t think these topics diminish the laughs. At times I had to clutch my gut to calm the pains in my stomach from heaving. Not the type of quote you might put up on a marquee, but that’s my take-home for what is truly a night of hilarity.
The title “Take a Banana for the Ride” comes from something Ross’s grandfather would say to him every time he left the house (“You get scared, you turn it sideways, it reminds you to smile”). This was Pop Jack, his mother’s father who helped raise Ross and his sister when they were orphaned at the ages of eighteen and sixteen respectively (mom from Leukemia and dad from… well, see the show). Ross’s reminiscences of being raised in Newark, New Jersey in an unorthodox—very unorthodox—Jewish home by a wild man of a father and a warm, devoted mother hit home for this critic—a Long Island Jew. We also meet a vivid assortment of relatives, partners in the family catering business. Empty picture frames float in space on Beowulf Boritt’s economical set, which from time to time fill up with Ross’s personal (and vast) collection of photos and home movies. Billy Crystal used this conceit, too, as it helps to keep track of the many characters we’re introduced to, including two rescue German Shepards, responsible for my favorite routine in the whole show. No spoilers.
Dressed in a shiny suit the color of a banana, the bald-headed Ross is something of a walking sight gag. He paces the stage like every other comedian since the invention of the microphone, though he dispenses with one in his hand for a lavalier taped to the side of his face. He uses people in the front rows to accentuate a punch line—or be the reason for one—yet reigns in his natural proclivity for insult humor. This is a shrewd move and one, perhaps, the work of Seth Barish, listed in the fine print in the Playbill as dramaturg (Barish is a frequent collaborator of another fine practitioner in the art of self-revealing one-man shows, Mike Birbiglia). There’s also a credit for director/choreographer Jeff Calhoun as creative consultant, and Stephen Kessler lands the main one as director. As the saying goes, “It takes a village.” But this is not a case of too many cooks. What’s on the menu is something as filling and as warmly inviting as a homemade kugel. Though fans of his rudeness shouldn’t despair; there’s a sequence near the end where Ross walks through the audience handing out bananas, but only to those who are willing to take an insult.
I did not stand.
Aided by two musicians onstage the entire time, Asher Denberg is both musical director and a fine and subtle pianist, and Felix Herbst plays a mean violin. Toni-Leslie James gets the credit for Ross’s costume, a nod to the Man in the Yellow Hat from the Curious George books, and Adam Honore has contributed with an attractive lighting design.
Tempted as I am to quote some of the best jokes in the show, it’s a pet peeve of mine when reading reviews, so excuse me for declining. For a taste of Ross’s timing and the bent of his humor, maybe you can get some idea by the tagline used in its advertising:
“The most emotional night in the theatre since Mufasa died.”
Also, a filmed commercial for the show tells you most of what you need to know by way of a young audience member who says, “I was surprised at how wholesome it was. I could cry.”
Only make no mistake about it: you will laugh!
Jeff Ross: Take a Banana for the Ride is at the Nederlander Theater, 208 W 41st Street, NYC, for eight weeks only through September 26th. For tickets, please visit: https://jeffrossbroadway.com.
Photos by Emilio Madrid.
